The Best Laid Plans
by NoelleWynters
Summary: In hindsight, she likely should have told the genie the plan. It would have saved quite a bit of precious time.


_Standard disclaimer applies: I own nothing, this is all for fun._

_I suppose this goes off canon, so you can toss everything that happened after a certain point in **Heart of Stone**._

If Jafar didn't want to play by the rules then she saw no harm in throwing them out the window completely.

His first mistake was turning the Knave of Hearts to stone. That had been a rather ill advised plan of action on the sorcerer's part, she would have thought it was a spur of the moment decision but nothing he did could be classified as rash. Every move he had was calculated and planned; if one wouldn't pan out he always had a few more up his sleeve.

Not that it mattered, she thought as she marched down the hallway leading to the dungeon, her Tweedles scurrying behind her. He'd left Wonderland and took one of her playing pieces, that being the White Rabbit. If he wanted to take her toys, she'd take one of his.

The genie.

With a flick of her wrist she'd knocked out any of his guards she came across, and before entering the dungeon she'd done the same to the other prisoner. She didn't know who he was, or what he'd done to end up on Jafar's list of least favourite people in all the realms and she didn't care. This plan was taking far too long and she had a feeling she was about to be double crossed anyway.

Two could play at that game.

A grin enveloped her face at the confused look that came over the genie as he was suddenly woken up by the jostling of the cage. "Rise and shine, darling," she drawled as he sat up and looked at her strangely.

"What do you want?" he asked as the cage was brought down to her level. It wasn't often he'd see one captor without the other present, they did seem to take far too much pleasure in terrorizing him in unison, and it was beginning to wear thin.

Anastasia flashed him a bright smile, her blue eyes twinkling as one of the Tweedles unlocked the cage. "I thought you could use some fresh air, it must get tiring being trapped inside all the time and in a toxic cage no less."

She tried not to laugh as he looked at her with a mixture of surprise and suspicion; he certainly wasn't stupid. "Come on now darling, you could use some daylight, you are starting to look absolutely drained of all life."

Still he stood there unmoving, despite the fact the door was wide open and he could easily step outside the confines of the bars. That was when it hit her; they were made of silver. She'd seen the burn on his arm not long ago; evidently walking past those bars was going to hurt. "Would one of you two idiots grab him? I don't want to stand here all day," she snapped as both the Tweedles did as she asked.

She smirked slightly at the pained expression that flitted across his face as he passed by the silver bars. He stumbled a bit once out of the cage, but righted himself easily enough. "There darling, that wasn't so hard. Now if you promise not to run away and be a good little genie you can stay out to play for awhile," she told him, to which he nodded in agreement.

But she could see in his dark eyes he was going to run the first chance he got.

* * *

It had taken a little longer than she'd expected, but he finally did run. She wasn't overly concerned; he couldn't get far on a floating island, although he likely had no idea that was where he was being held captive. He would have been smarter to stay with her, but he'd taken off and now she had to give chase.

People were infuriating, be them normal people or a genie in this case, why didn't they just listen to her? Jafar could return at any given time and quite frankly she'd rather have Cyrus, his bottle and a way out of Wonderland all lined up before the madman returned.

She'd eventually located him on a cliff. It amused her to see him standing there with a completely desperate look on his face. He had actually thought he'd get away and find Alice. If he'd just sit still long enough she would happily explain they were going to find Alice anyway, and he was just wasting precious time with this foolishness.

Right when she thought she had him again, he did something completely unexpected: he jumped. A few thousand feet down into the water. Whatever had possessed him to do it she couldn't fathom but she had to admire his bravery, although she mused it leaned closer towards stupidity.

No one could survive that drop, but then she remembered he was immortal so at most he was going to be pretty uncomfortable when he came to.

"And now I have to go find you again," she muttered, shouting for the Tweedles. "Next time I'm tying you up darling, this will prove tiresome after awhile."

* * *

"Don't stand there like the idiots I know you are, tie him up before he come around!"

"With what?"

"Do I have to explain everything in little words? There are vines over there, use them. Before I hang one or both of you from them!"

Cyrus moaned as he felt two pairs of hands grab him and toss him into what he could only assume was a cart. A second later he could feel his wrists being tied together, as well as his ankles.

That had been a pretty stupid move, in retrospect. But it was a little late now to worry about that, evidently the Red Queen was tired of playing games and wasn't going to give him another chance to take off.

He slowly opened his eyes to see her looking down at him with a bit of a satisfied grin brightening up her features. "Now genie, if you promise to behave I'll let you sit up here with me. But if you're just going to be a nuisance you're staying right there. The choice is yours."

It only took him a second to promise to behave, as she put it, as he was sore and lying in the back of a cart was going to do him no favours. Mind neither did either of the Tweedles when they roughly grabbed him to put him in the front with the queen.

Evidently he was not to be trusted at all, as she didn't even trust him to walk from the back of the cart to the front where she was sitting.

Jumping really was a very, very stupid move.

* * *

In hindsight, maybe she should have gagged the genie as well. He was rather infuriating when he did start to talk.

What difference did it make to her if Jafar would be angry when he discovered what she'd done? The plan was to leave Wonderland regardless, and she was pretty sure Cyrus would be on board with that one. Unless, of course, all the silver exposure had addled his mind in some way. But the jump off the floating island notwithstanding, he seemed to be of pretty sound mind.

Except for the fact he didn't seem to know when to bloody well shut up.

She'd told him a couple times on the way to where the bottle was hidden to stop talking, but he seemed to find a way to start up again, much to her annoyance. It wasn't so much she hated the sound of his voice, she wouldn't admit it out loud, but his tone was actually somewhat soothing. It was what he was saying that was getting on her last nerve.

If she didn't need him, she was certain she'd shove him out of the cart and leave him for Jafar to find.

* * *

Anastasia wasn't sure when she went from wanting to throttle Cyrus if he didn't shut up to actually talking to him like a normal person. She mused it was likely when she'd come out of the place she'd once shared with Will, the genie's bottle firmly in hand.

When she'd informed him he had a very big decision to make she hadn't expected the look she'd received. He actually looked on the verge of a panic attack, and she was struck at how odd it was to think he could be claustrophobic.

It was right in that moment he went from being a someone she thought of simply as 'genie' to Cyrus, and possibly someone she could trust.

* * *

Suddenly she'd gone from being the Red Queen to a young woman on the run from a bad decision. Cyrus couldn't pinpoint the moment, but suddenly he'd begun to a feel a slight kinship with her.

He wasn't completely certain if he could fully trust her, but she was taking him to Alice, and hopefully a way out of Wonderland. What her deepest wish was he couldn't figure out, and she wasn't going to give him any hint either.

Whatever it was, it required breaking the laws of magic. She was going about all of it wrong, but he'd seen enough masters want what they couldn't have or desire to change what could never be altered.

For however long it lasted, he would trust her as he really had no other choice. She wasn't going to take him back to Jafar, evidently she'd intended to double cross the sorcerer at some point if she had kept the bottle well hidden from him.

After she told him to shut up, yet again, he glanced away and smiled slightly. Keeping the bottle from Jafar wasn't an overly smart move, but neither had his decision to jump from that floating island been.

Neither of them made smart choices it seemed, he only hoped whatever she was planning would work out. They were both on the run from Jafar now, and needed to get out of Wonderland and fast.

* * *

A soft laugh caught Anastasia's attention; she looked over at Cyrus slightly annoyed. "What has gotten you so amused?"

He grinned and glanced at her. "You know, if you'd told me from the start what exactly you had planned I would have been far more compliant, your majesty."

"Shut up," she snapped, her tone tinged with a touch of amusement. "And my name is Anastasia."


End file.
